Support

FAQs - NVIDIA Quadro Graphics Cards

Why should I buy a NVIDIA® Quadro® product over a high-end gaming card?

We do not recommend, nor do we support, using gaming cards for professional applications. Our NVIDIA® Quadro® by PNY professional graphics boards were designed for the sole purpose of providing maximum optimal performance in professional applications such as AutoCAD, 3ds Max, Maya, Pro-Engineer, Photoshop, SolidWorks, and many others. Quadro and NVS professional graphics boards are certified to support a wide variety of professional applications.

How many watts should my power supply be in order to use the NVIDIA® Quadro® Graphics Card?

On the specifications page for each of our NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics boards by PNY, we state the maximum power consumption. Subtract the total power requirements of your current configuration from the total Wattage output rating of your power supply. As long as the remainder is greater than the maximum power consumption of your NVIDIA Quadro graphics board by PNY, you will be fine.

If needed, you may use a free power supply calculator to determine whether your power supply will meet the overall power requirements of your configuration:

What are the recommended BIOS settings for a NVIDIA® Quadro® Graphics Card?

Caution: Change BIOS settings at your own risk. PNY Technologies cannot be held responsible for problems arising from changes made to the BIOS settings of your PC. We recommend using the optimized default settings for your motherboard BIOS. If your motherboard has an onboard (also known as integrated or embedded) graphics card, we recommend that the onboard graphics card be disabled in the BIOS set up menu, if there is a setting that allows you to do this. Check with the motherboard manufacturer or the computer manufacturer for further information on how to do this.

What sets NVIDIA® Quadro® products ahead of high-end gaming cards?

All PNY NVIDIA Quadro™ products include hardware and software optimizations targeted to professional applications and they are ISV certified for many professional applications. PNY Technologies only recommends and supports using our PNY NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics cards to support professional applications (such as Adobe Creative Cloud 2014, Autodesk 3ds Max and AutoCAD, SolidWorks, TradeStation, and many others).

Is there a utility that can tell me if my video card is operating correctly?

Direct X is an application that can help check to see if there are any issues associated with your video as well as other devices. Click on the START button, (and then, if using Windows XP, click the RUN button,) and then type DXDIAG and hit Enter. Now click the Display tab to look for any indication of video issues. Click the Exit button when finished. Also, SPECviewperf is a benchmarking application that may be downloaded for free from www.SPEC.org

My PC will not POST (doesn't display anything when I switch it on) after I put my NVIDIA® Quadro® Graphics card in. How can I fix it?

Try these options: • Verify that your Quadro card is firmly seated in the PCIE slot, and clean away any dust in the slot or on the card. • Verify that your processor and RAM are firmly seated - you may have dislodged them when you installed the Quadro card. • If there are other cards (network card, video capture card, another graphics card, etc.) in the other slots, consider temporarily removing the other cards from their slots. • Verify that your PC boots OK with a different graphics board inserted in place of the new Quadro graphics board. • Install the latest BIOS update for your motherboard (Caution: proceed at your own risk. PNY Technologies cannot be held responsible for problems arising from updating the motherboard BIOS).

If I have onboard video, how do I disable it when I install your new video card?

​Before inserting your new PNY NVIDIA professional graphics card, boot the PC with the monitor connected to the onboard (integrated/embedded/built-in) graphics card. Open the display adapters category in Windows device manager. You should see an entry representing your onboard graphics card. Right-click the onboard graphics card and then left-click the option to disable it. If prompted, click Yes to confirm. Close the device manager, and then take the normal steps to reboot. During the reboot, after Windows has shut down, tap the key (Example: F1, F2, or Delete) to enter the BIOS set up menu. In the BIOS set up menu, select the proper setting to disable the onboard graphics card, and/or to tell the PC to use the external PCIE graphics card as the primary display adapter (Example: Change Primary Video from "Auto" to "Onboard/Card," or to "Onboard/PEG"). Save the settings and exit. The display will go black. Immediately, press the On/Off button (and hold it pressed-in) on the front of your PC (usually for about five seconds) until the PC powers down. Unplug the power, ground yourself, disconnect the monitor cable from the back of the PC, insert your new PNY NVIDIA professional graphics board, connect one or more monitors to your new graphics board, connect the power, and boot to Windows.

Re-enable the onboard sound card (integrated audio) in the BIOS set up menu. Save the settings and exit. If the issue persists, please reseat all cable connections for your speakers, verify that they are powered on, and that volume is not muted in your volume controls. Still having an issue? Disconnect the speakers, and connect headphones to the speaker output connection, and check for audio output. It may also help to update the driver for your sound card.

I inserted my new Quadro or NVS graphics board into my PC, but then when I tried to boot, it hung in POST at a blinking cursor, or at a prompt to enter the System Set-up menu.

Follow the steps below to manually disable secure boot:

1) Power down the system, disconnect power, ground yourself

2) Remove the Quadro or NVS graphics board from its slot

3) Boot the system using integrated graphics

4) Access the CMOS set-up menu (CMOS settings can usually be accessed during boot, typically by pressing one of F1, F2, F8, F12, or Delete).

5) Set Secure Boot to Disabled

6) If there is an option, set CSM (or compatibility or legacy mode) to Enabled.

7) Save the new settings

8) Power down the system

9) Install the Quadro or NVS graphics board again

10) The system should now boot

If the steps above do not resolve the issue, consider trying the Quadro or NVS graphics board in a different PC.

In some cases, a BIOS update to the motherboard may be required to enable your PC to boot after inserting your new Quadro or NVS graphics board. CAUTION: PNY cannot be responsible if a BIOS update hurts instead of helping, so it is best to have a support representative from the computer or motherboard manufacturer help you with a BIOS update.

If you need further help, please call PNY Quadro Support at 800-203-0130.

Which computer models does NVIDIA® certify to support two Quadro® graphics boards in SLI mode?

For more information, please refer to the NVIDIA web page linked below:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_sli_compatible_systems.html

If you need further help, please call PNY Quadro Support at 800-203-0130.

Is there a way to employ SLI technology to power multiple displays or accelerate productivity when running professional applications?

Quadro SLI is implemented differently from GeForce SLI. While GeForce SLI enhances gaming, Quadro SLI is directed toward supporting Mosaic multiple display configurations, or to support full scene antialiasing, or to boost performance with SLI frame rendering. More information may be found at the NVIDIA web page linked below:

When I take steps to install the driver for my new NVIDIA Quadro P400 (or P600, P1000, P2000, etc.) graphics board in Windows 10, I get a message that the driver is not compatible with this version of Windows, or the driver installation does not complete successfully.

NVIDIA Pascal GPUs require Windows 10 update #10586 (also known as Win10 TH2, or version 1511) from November 2015 or later. Using the older Win10 TH1, you will have driver installation issues. Please run Windows Update, reboot, and then repeat the steps to install the (latest) NVIDIA Windows 10 graphics driver.

When I boot my computer, I am not getting a display on the monitor connected to my Quadro (or NVS) graphics board. I must reset the BIOS (and disconnect from KVM switch) to recover. My Quadro (or NVS) graphics board is intermittently not detected by my motherboard, and only the onboard graphics card is working.

In the BIOS menu, set the generation of the PCIe slot to match the generation of your graphics board (Examples: Gen 2, or Gen 3).